Rock N'Roll N'Wild Souls
by wildrocknmetalchild
Summary: Hi, my name is Emily. My life was an abusive hell until I met Axl Rose, it was strange, but it seemed like fate had chosen for us to meet. This is the story of how I, a small-town girl from Indiana made it all the way to LA and even further, it's story of us, and of him. Most importantly though, it is the story of Guns N'Roses, not just as a bunch of crazy rockers, but as people
1. Chapter 1

My name is Emily, or Em, whatever really. My story is really a strange one, and looking back I honestly don't know what insane coincidences led me to lead the life I have led. I was born Jennifer Smith in a small town in the midwest. I have light hair and eyes and I was on the tall side for a girl, but so were most people where I lived. My town was a logging town with very little going on, it was filled with tourist traps and old rundown houses. My family had some trouble early on, my mother ran off with another man, and my dad remarried the female incarnation of satan, and he himself soon turned to alcoholism. He had a job at the mill, and my stepmom didn't do shit, so we didn't live well, but we didn't live on the street so that was something. I was beat a lot growing up, but I didn't know an different so it didn't seem all that bad to me. The first experience I remember where someone tried to help me was when I was 10 or 11 and sitting in the town bookstore reading some magazine or pamphlet. When I took my winter jacket off, my sleeve got pushed up and revealed a patchwork of bruising around my wrist. The lady running the store saw and asked me but I yelled and ran away. As far as I was concerned, grownups only caused pain.

Skipping through many years of this, I was in high school. I was a smart kid but I never saw the point to anything, so I came off as lazy and stupid. My anxiety got worse or better with my home life and I frequently skipped school to just go walk wherever the fancy took me. It was on one of those walks I met Axl. He had the same wild, angry look I saw when I looked at myself in the mirror, or that I saw in the faces of other kids like me. We were both in a gas station, and I briefly noticed his face because of the look and because he wasn't too shabby-looking regardless of his unkempt clothes and hair. I grabbed a coke and a bag of chips to buy and snagged a box of Marlboros and a beer bottle. The Marlboros were to appease StepSatan, the beer was for me. I sat down on the ground out front, a little ways from the door. My leather jacket and jeans rubbed against the wall as I slid down. I groaned, my back was killing me, my dad had gotten drunk and slammed a doorknob into my lower back and there was a huge bruise. I finally sat down and popped open my bag of chips, my blonde wavy hair falling in my face. Then a pair of clunky boots with mud on the side strolled up to me. _Great. Another creeper._ I thought. But then my eyes travelled up to light colored worn out jeans and a loose fitting jacket with a T-Shirt. And then to a face, a face I would never forget. It was the boy from the store with shoulder length shaggy dirty blonde hair and the eyes like mine.

"Hey there, may I sit?" he said, gesturing with his head at the ground next to me.

"Its a free country." I said, barely glancing at him. I could not deal today if he tried to come onto me. He groaned as he slid down the concrete wall, settling a comfortable distance away from me. He looked over at me, squinting slightly.

"So you sneaked some shit too?" I looked over, surprised and he laughed, holding out a bottle of vodka and about 7 or 8 chip bags. I opened my mouth to ask 'How?' But he guessed my question and gestured to his coat. "I cut one of the seams, you can hide shit in em' and no one noticed because of the poof."

"Huh, smart." I smiled.

"So whats your name?" I was still surprised he was talking to me, I was used to people leaving me alone or putting me off as just another teenage train wreck.

"Emily. Although I'm still working the details out." I smiled, glancing up at him, his face was actually rather handsome. "What about you?"

"Axl. Axl Rose. Same here actually." He laughed.

"So are you from around here? Ive not seen you around." I said, I would have remembered if I did.

"Yeah, I live uptown a bit, I used to go to church at . The community aint in great shape but I figure Ill be gone soon so it can rot in hell."

"Ah, see what I'm worried about is that I'm never gonna get my ass out of here. Im just white trash, I don't function like other people in school, when I even show up. Its just my hell on earth." I said, chugging some of my coke to hide my embarrassment.

"I had to drop out a bit ago, Beaver high. What school are you at?" He said, A confused shadow passed over his face.

"Jensen High. Its a good school, I just don't belong, you know?" I said, finishing off the coke. He pulled out his vodka.

"Yeah, I have a friend who goes there, feels the same way. Do ya know a kid named Izzy, real artsy guy? Greasy fucker but a good kid." He asked enthusiastically.

"Yeah! He is in my painting class, always wears baggy clothes."

And so we talked, and drank, and talked until we were almost passed out in front of the store and the sun was fading from the sky. We ended up talking like old friends, about family trouble and life's biggies. Eventually the owner shooed us away and we walked down the street.

"So where are you headed now?" He asked, still a bit tipsy.

"I was thinking of going home, hence the cigarettes, haven't been back there in like 2 days." I sighed, putting my hands in the pockets of my jacket, you could feel the chill of the coming fall in the air. We walked past a bar, and a closed book store.

"You got anywhere to stay?" He said, looking genuinely concerned.

"If this is an invitation to 'stay the night' I think Ill have to decline." I said, my distrust of everyone acting up.

"I'm not gonna try and fuck you if thats what you mean. I don't do that, thats for fucked up cowards." He scrunched his eyebrows together. "Its just, if you've got nowhere to go…." He trailed off, and then was struck by a thought "Wait, where have you been sleeping?"

I snorted and said "You know Hemingway park?"

"Yeah, junkie heaven. Jeez you cant sleep there! Some of those dudes are fucking dangerous!" He said, throwing up his hands. Some people walking the other way on the sidewalk moved around us.

"Well, I wasn't exactly sleeping IN the park." I said.

"What..?" Axl said, raising an eyebrow.

"I slept on the roof of one of the buildings for the past few nights, the leaves work like a blanket." I said, trying to explain.

"You cant sleep there, its not safe and you are going to get sick."

"Well, if I cant sleep there I suppose you're suggesting I stay with you?"

"Yes."

"Oh.. Ok, where is it?"

"Trailer in the Rosemont park, Izzy rents it, he gets shit from welfare cuz his dad left when he was a kid and his moms in rehab, he refused to go with a family so they just give him money. Lucky Fuck."

"Alright, fine, Its better than a roof I guess." I said, at least there was going to be someone I'd known for more than a few hours there.

We talked all the way there, it was like a 30 minute walk and ended in a shitty trailer park, but not much better than where I lived. If anything it was a bit more vibrant. We walked up to a door with 'fuck off…' written across it and peeling paint adorning the metal walls. Axl pounded on the door and shouted for Izzy to "LET US IN."

"US? WHAT THE FUCK DID I SAY ABOUT CHi-" He flung open the door and stopped dead in his tracks. "Emily?!"


	2. Chapter 2: Shennanigans

**Hii! SO heres chapter 2:**

"Hey, you know my name?" I said, smiling faintly and half-saluting half-waving with two fingers. Axl pushed past me to get inside and grabbed Izzy's Jacket, mumbling 'she doesn't have anywhere else, be nice' as he pushed past him him into the trailer and then gestured to me to follow. I looked to Izzy and he nodded, standing back and holding his arm out in the 'Whats mine is yours' gesture. I walked quickly up the steep steps, the fall air chasing me into the warm interior.

"I know your name because you're in my art class, you paint the dark shit." He laughed

"Oh. I always hope people aren't paying attention, its awkward to explain." I said, looking down. I liked painting skulls because of the shading, so I often incorporated them into my work.

"Nah, its cool, remember I'm the one who painted a drunk murderer and pissed the teacher off" He said, smiling slightly at the memory.

"True!" I laughed.

"But anyways, welcome to my castle, may I take your coat madame?" He said in mock chivalry. I looked around and the trailer was pretty beat up. The kitchen still looked good, but the curtains had been replaced with dark fabric taped so it hung over most of every window. There were posters on all the walls, mostly bands, I saw Aerosmith and a few others I recognized. There were a few playboy rip-out posters stuck around and aside from that the walls were just covered with a pinstripe wallpaper pattern. There was a lamp in one corner casting a dim orangey light over the whole thing. At the far end there was one door with a dark bathroom peeking from behind it and another door in the back that must lead to a bedroom. It was actually really homey, but definitely had a masculine feel to it.

"Why thank you sir, you may." I said, echoing his sarcasm as he helped me out of my coat. I walked in and axl slumped down on the couch, soon followed by Izzy. I turned around to pick up my bag and stretched. My shirt rode up a bit, and I thought it was covered but apparently it wasnt, and Axls shocked voice made me jump.

"Emily, what the fuck happened to you!?"

"Its nothi-… Oh fuck it, my dad slammed a doorknob into my back. Is it really that bad? I thought my jeans covered it." I was used to telling people I had fallen, I didn't want pity, I wanted people to butt out of my life, but I figured they were already sharing their home with me, so I kind of owed them the truth. I quickly picked up my bag and turned around to see both of them looking disgusted. Axl's knuckled were white because he was making a fist.

"Jesus, fucking, christ." Izzy said, shaking his head. "That bruise is like half your back, I can see why you aren't at home. Does he hit you a lot?!"

"Yeah, look, can we just drop it?" I said, Axl breathed out heavily through his nose and looked frustrated. "I'm sorry, I just. I really can't talk about it, I'm used to hiding it and…." I trailed off.

"We've both had our fair share of beatings too, but Izzy's mom kicked his dads ass on the street after things got real bad, lucky fuck." Axl said, Izzy raised an eyebrow at him and sighed, leaning back.

"Ah. So we are three of a kind…" I mused. "Look, I cant just stay here without doing something for you guys, let me cook you dinner." I said, and was in the fridge before either of them could say a thing. There wasn't much, but there were surprisingly some veggies. I picked up the cabbage and looked back at them, holding it up and raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Farmer down the road, good guy, let me work for some food and his wife ended up giving us a bunch of shit, its kind of old now, but at least we're not starving." Axl said.

"Huh." I said, expecting it to have been stolen. I wound my hair up above my head in a bun and turend on the stove, looking for anything I could use as a pan, the kitchen was actually pretty well-equiped and I found a legitimate frying pan. There wasn't any butter but there was the gas-station-brand cooking spray, it was almost expired and hadn't really been used. M _aybe his mom bought it?_ I thought. I proceeded to cut up various vegetables. I fried the potatoes and eggs together and then added in the lettuce. And Holy mother of mary, there it was, A beautiful, delicious garlic. "Holy shit!" Guys! You have garlic?"

"Thats what that is? We couldn't figure it out, I thought it was some kind of root so I bit into it and it tasted funny." Izzy said, he was rolling a joint on the table. And Axl was leafing through some kind of magazine.

"No! I haven't had garlic in so long holy shit this is amazing!" I practically squeaked. "Oh my god, this just made my day. Hey, do you guys have any music?" I grinned. Izzy finished rolling his joint and struck a match on his boot, lighting both it and the joint in one swift motion.

"Yeah, we don't have a way to play it though" Axl laughed as Izzy took a puff of the joint.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Izzy said, running back to the other room, handing the joint off to Axl. "I found this!" He said, running triumphantly back into the room with a guitar in hand, it was just an acoustic but it looked like it was in good condition.

"Oh!" I squealed excitedly, stirring the garlic into the pan. "Oh you have to play something! Do either of you sing?" I asked, excited.

"Yeah actually. At least I try.." Axl said. "Izzy is the real genius, When I try to write it all comes out wrong and then he fixes it."

"Damn right I do." Izzy chuckled.

"Do you have any songs yet?" I asked.

"I mean we have some lyrics but we haven't really figured out much-"

"Play!" I insisted. Axl counted izzy in and Izzy started playing a pretty major chord pattern. Axl began to whistle a tune to go with the guitar and then he began to sing:

 _Girl, I think about you every day now_

 _Was a time when I wasn't sure_

 _But you set my mind at ease_

 _There is no doubt you're in my heart now_

 _Said woman take it slow, and it'll work itself out fine_

 _All we need is just a little patience_

 _Said sugar make it slow and we'll come together fine_

 _All we need is just a little patience (Patience)_

 _Mm, yeah_

The soft noted of the guitar interlocked with his voice beautifully and as the kept singing I smiled and rocked back and forth in time to the music. It was good. Very good. I looked back at them smiling as they played, Izzy's joint hanging out of his mouth, Axl moving with the music.

 _Said, woman, take it slow_

 _And things will be just fine_

 _You and I'll just use a little patience_

 _Said, sugar, take the time_

 _'Cause the lights are shining bright_

 _You and I've got what it takes_

 _To make it, We won't fake it,_

The lyrics were wonderful and wove perfectly with the tune, aside from a few off notes where I guessed they were still figuring things out. The eggs and veggies were done cooking and I pulled a few of the plastic plates out of a cabinet, still swaying to the music. I emptied the eggs and veggies with garlic onto plates and Izzy looked over intently, I knew it smelled like heaven. _Garlic is heaven._ I thought. I brought the plates over and found a fork or two as well just just as he began whistling again. I slumped down on the couch beside Izzy and just sat back and listened. It was really beautiful. As the last notes echoed through the air, they looked over and smiled at me and then grabbed the food.

"So whaddya think?" Axl said, through a mouthful of food. "This is rllygoodbytheway, thank you!" Izzy nodded, enthusiastically shoveling it into his mouth.

"That was fucking amazing. I cant believe you wrote it! I cant describe it properly, its just such a peaceful song and yet it has these powerful vibes, you know?" I said, Axl put down his plate and grinned. Izzy looked up, really looking hopeful for a few seconds.

"You think?" Izzy smiled. "And dude, you need to write that second verse down, that was good improv!" Axl nodded, running for some paper and a pen.

"By the way, if you cook like this a lot and you can stay here as long as you damn please." Izzy said, turning to me and smiling a bit. I laughed and thanked him, eating more of my food. It WAS good.

The evening got on and we talked late into the night, we all got at least a little drunk off Axl's Gas-station-vodka and my beer and I ended up falling asleep on the couch at around 3 am.


End file.
